“For my son now, there are no limitations.” Srdjan Djokovic is the father with the capital “N” on his shirt, a family line that spells the nickname of the latest, most radiant shooting star in tennis. Dad is “N”, Mum is “O”, one brother is “L”, the other “E”. “Nole” is a shortform for Novak Djokovic and yesterday it became the name that haunted Roger Federer.

For the second time in 24 hours the Rod Laver Arena at Melbourne Park was held spellbound by the march of the fledgelings, who treated the world’s No l and No 2 players with a disdain that marks them as exceedingly special talents. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga stripped Rafael Nadal bare on Thursday night and yesterday it was the turn of Djokovic, the No 3, to show in the second-biggest match of his life that he had learnt everything there was to learn from the first.

When the Serb played Federer under the New York lights in September he did not believe enough to win. It was not that way in the semi-finals of the Australian Open; it was Federer who fumbled and underperformed.

Djokovic, who spoke earlier in the tournament about the labour of handling his demons, had everything under control. Remarkable, also, that his 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 victory was his sixth in succession here in straight sets.

As his father said later, the world is his oyster. First and foremost he has to hope that Tsonga finds the glare of a first grand-slam final as unyielding as Djokovic did at the US Open. If the Frenchman forgets where he is and comes out firing, we may be privy to an outrageous outcome. If he is a little off, Djokovic ought to prevail. “There is a new maturity about Novak, he can do what he wants,” Srdjan said. That is not simply fraternal pride talking.

For the first time there is a Serbian man and a Serbian woman in finals at a grand-slam tournament — Ana Ivanovic aimed to light the first fire against Maria Sharapova last night — which is an extraordinary achievement for so small a nation. Ivanovic went to Switzerland to seek her fortune, Djokovic to Germany, but they are blessed with heart, talent and refusal to accept second best (one without the others is not enough) that is the bedrock of their country’s emergence.

It is a small sign of what tennis can do for humankind that a knot of supporters in Croatian shirts were urging on Djokovic. In a period of history where so much divides, seeing that warmed the cockles. Djokovic said that he thought the crowd were on Federer’s side and to a great extent they were, but that is because he is, as his conqueror said, “probably the greatest player we have ever seen”.

The Australians were taken aback by Federer’s slow start, that he was able to break first, lead 5-3 and lose five games in succession. They did not expect him to trail 5-1 in the second set, a dire position that he almost rescued, only for Djokovic, who was warned for time-wasting by Pascal Maria, the French umpire, to unleash a service winner and then an ace to take a two-set lead.

The crux came in the twelfth game of the third set, with Federer leading 6-5 and at love-30 on the Djokovic serve, thanks to a couple of staggering returns. The Serb reached 30-all and thumped a backhand long, saving that set point with an unreturnable serve. A forehand crosscourt winner staved off a second set point, an ace gave Djokovic game point and a forehand flicked winner, disdainfully played, brought him into the tie-break, which he won nervelessly.

“Considering my illness [Federer had a stomach virus a couple of days before the tournament started], I’m sort of happy with the result here,” last year’s champion said. “Of course, I’ve created a monster, I know I need to win every tournament. I’ll analyse and see if I have to make changes. I didn’t play my best throughout the championships, but it was pretty solid, so it was OK.”

But “OK” does not cut it these days, not with players such as Tsonga and Djokovic snapping at the heels. A song has been penned about the Frenchman, containing the verse

“I love this bloke, so I thought I’d write a songa; so everybody cheer for Jo-Wilfried Tsonga; he’s the unseeded fella who can do no wronga; allez, allez, Tsonga.” Catchy.

What Djokovic and Tsonga have done is give the other young pretenders a jolt of hope. Andy Murray will have taken note. The LTA, too, although it is preoccupied with a prospective £2 million buyout of Interbrew’s contract and taking over the running of the Artois Championships at Queen’s Club from 2009. The hope is that it will find companies willing to embrace the future of British tennis. Finding a Tsonga or a Djokovic would help.